Posts tagged ‘reports’

“The development of offshore oil, gas, and other mineral resources in the U.S. is impacted by a number of inter-related legal regimes, including international, fedederal, and state laws. International law provides a framework for establishing control of offshore areas, and domestic federal law supplements these standards. In the U.S., governance of offshore minerals and regional development activities are bifurcated between state and federal law.

Rising oil prices and concerns over declining petroleum production worldwide revived U.S. interest in oil shale after a two-decade hiatus. In addition to technological challenges left unsolved from previous development efforts, environmental issues remained and new issues have emerged.

The United States corrections system has gone through an unprecedented expansion during the last few decades, with a more than 400% jump in the prison population and a corresponding boom in prison construction. At the end of 2008, 2.3 million adults were in state, local, or federal custody, with another 5.1 million on probation or parole. Of that total, 9% were in federal custody. Globally, the U.S. has 5% of the world’s population but 25% of its prisoners. Figures and tables.

Contents: (I) Introduction; (II) An Overview of the Impeachment Process in the House and Senate; (III) Rules Governing Senate Impeachment Proceedings; (IV) Organizing the Senate for Trial; (V) The Role of the Presiding Officer; (VI) Use of an Impeachment Trial Committee: Organization and Responsibilities of the Committee; Procedure During the Preliminary Phase of Its Proceedings; Procedure During the Evidentiary Phase of Its Proceedings; Submitting a Report to the Full Senate; (VII) Deliberation by the Full Senate; (VIII) Judgment by the Full Senate; (IX) Length of Senate Impeachment Trials; (X) Concluding Observations; Appendix A. H. Res. 1031, Articles of Impeachment Against Judge G. Thomas Porteous; Appendix B. Chart of the Senate Impeachment Trial Process. Tables.

This report provides an overview of the requirements of the First Amendment related to military personnel’s religious exercise, regarding the Free Exercise Clause and the Establishment Clause. It analyzes current constitutional and statutory requirements regarding religious exercise, and provides a framework for how Congress and the courts might consider future issues that arise related to servicemembers’ religious exercise.

Specifically, the report examines the limitations placed on servicemembers in uniform in the exercise of their religious beliefs. It also examines the role of military chaplains and the legal challenges associated with publicly funding religious personnel. The report analyzes efforts by Congress and the Department of Defense (DOD) to address the constitutional concerns that are raised by these issues.

This letter formally transmits the briefing in response to the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2010 (Pub. L. No. 111-84), which required a report on rare earth materials in the defense supply chain to the Committees on Armed Services of the Senate and House of Representatives. Contents: Introduction; Objectives, Scope, and Methodology; Background; Summary; Objective 1: Current and Projected Availability; Objective 2: Defense System Dependency; Objective 3: Department of Defense (DOD) Identified Risks and Actions; Agency Comments; Points of Contact. Figures.

As part of the conflict with Al Qaeda and the Taliban, the U.S. has captured and detained numerous persons believed to have been part of or associated with enemy forces. Over the years, federal courts have considered a multitude of petitions by or on behalf of suspected belligerents challenging aspects of U.S. detention policy.

Although the Supreme Court has issued definitive rulings concerning several legal issues raised in the conflict with Al Qaeda and the Taliban, many others remain unresolved, with some the subject of ongoing litigation. This report discusses major judicial opinions concerning suspected enemy belligerents detained in the conflict with Al Qaeda and the Taliban.

The report addresses all Supreme Court decisions concerning enemy combatants. It also discusses notable circuit court opinions addressing issues of ongoing relevance to U.S. detention policy. The report also addresses a few notable decisions by federal district courts that are the subject of ongoing habeas litigation.

Finally, it describes a few federal court rulings in criminal cases involving persons who were either involved in the 9/11 attacks or were captured abroad by U.S. forces during operations against Al Qaeda, the Taliban, and associated entities.not convicted.

Contents: (I) The Right to Debate: The Right to Recognition; The Right to Speak at Length and the Two-Speech Rule; The Motion to Table; (II) The Conduct of Filibusters: Germaneness of Debate; Yielding the Floor and Yielding for Questions; Quorums and Quorum Calls; Roll Call Voting; Scheduling Filibusters; (III) Invoking Cloture: Matters on Which Cloture May be Invoked: Timing of Cloture Motions; (IV) Effects of Invoking Cloture; (V) The Impact of Filibusters. Tables.

The federal government’s efforts to address the perceived threat of bioterrorism span many different agencies and are organized and directed through several strategy and planning documents. These agencies have implemented numerous disparate actions and programs in their statutory areas to address the threat.

Despite these efforts, many experts, including congressional commissions, non-governmental organizations, and industry representatives, have highlighted weaknesses or flaws in the federal government’s biodefense activities.

Broadband is the great infrastructure challenge of the early 21st century. The number of Americans who have broadband at home has grown from 8 million in 2000 to nearly 200 million last year.

But approximately 100 million Americans do not have broadband at home. Broadband-enabled health IT can improve care and lower costs by hundreds of billions of dollars in the coming decades, yet the U.S. is behind many advanced countries in the adoption of such technology.

In early 2009, Congress directed the Fed. Communications Comm. (FCC) to develop a National Broadband Plan to ensure that every American has “access to broadband capability.”

To fulfill Congress’s mandate, this plan seeks to ensure that the entire broadband ecosystem — networks, devices, content and applications— is healthy. It makes recommendations to the FCC, the Executive Branch, Congress and state and local governments. Figures.

All-terrain vehicles (ATV), which are off-road motorized vehicles, have become increasingly popular. However, ATV fatalities and injuries have increased over the last decade and are a matter of concern to the Consumer Product Safety Commission (Commission).

Many ATV crashes involving children occur when they are riding adult-sized ATVs. Manufacturers and distributors have agreed to use their best efforts to prevent their dealers from selling adult-sized ATVs for use by children under the age of 16.

This report examines (1) how ATVs are used and the advantages of their use and (2) the nature, extent, and costs of ATV crashes. The report reviewed ATV use and crash data and discussed these issues with Commission staff, industry officials, user groups, and safety stakeholders. Includes recommendations. Figures.

Have you ever wanted to flip through pages of a book or report before to help you decide to buy it? Now you can!

We’ve launched an exciting new feature on the Diane Publishing Web site: the Google Preview button for nearly 20,000 of our titles, including 17,000 government reports and 3,000 publications from our non-profit Philadelphia-area partner “affiliates.”

For nearly four years we have offered nearly all of our titles 100 percent fully-viewable on Google Books. Now you can preview these publications on the Diane Publishing Web site, instead of having to search separately on Google Books.

The preview is generally 100 percent for the government reports, and most of the publications from our affiliates. Let’s see it in action for the government report “Protecting and Restoring America’s Watersheds.” (Click the images to enlarge them.)

Update June 2010: Our Web site is now optimized for mobile use, including the Google Preview feature. Now you can read government reports and publications from our affiliates on your mobile phone — without leaving the Diane site.